


Rose Tyler’s No Good Very Bad Day

by Skyler10



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Bad Days, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff, PMS/PMDD, Pete's World Torchwood, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-23
Updated: 2017-04-23
Packaged: 2018-10-23 02:15:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10710072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skyler10/pseuds/Skyler10
Summary: Rose starts out having a terrible day at work, but by the end, her Doctor has the perfect remedy. One month post-JE.





	Rose Tyler’s No Good Very Bad Day

**Author's Note:**

> A Nonny prompted “so… what are we now?” and “why do I love you?” from @doctorroseprompts Five Word Prompts. This goes out to everyone needing a vacation or who has just had a sucky work week.

Hot tears rolled down Rose Tyler’s face as she hid behind the filing cabinet in her office at Torchwood One, blocked from view from the door except for two pink Converse trainers sticking out. She tucked her knees up to her chest as another cramp rolled through her gut. _How long before the damn pain killer kicks in?_ she grumbled to herself.

Everything today was wrong. She’d been on her period for a few days but today was Big Emotions Day. And boy, did her hormones have it out for her. First, there was the case of the missing Oyster card. Then when the Doctor found it, he’d looked so smart-arse about it, she hadn’t even thanked him. Second, she’d spilled hot coffee all over her new blouse (which he hadn’t noticed was especially low-cut, despite her hopes that it would catch his eye). Then, after an assortment of technology malfunctions and miscommunications, they’d been called out on a mission, which, of course, had her running and grimacing and being told to “keep up or we’re going to lose them!” by no less than three of her teammates, including you-know-who.

He had flipped his sonic in the air with an “Ah ha!” as he got a successful reading for where their pursuit would end. They made their way down the city street and each took their assigned posts.   Ten minutes into their stakeout later, a headache as well as cramps pounded Rose from the inside. She was dehydrated and couldn’t focus. If only she could reach the water bottle and meds in her supply pack… The slavers slipped right past Rose as she was distracted. She never even saw them until Jake shot a plasma net from his cannon and trapped them. Jake sent her a _what the hell, Tyler?_ look before making the arrest and transporting them back to HQ. Failure ripped through her chest and taunted her aching brain.  

But the nail in the proverbial coffin of her emotional sanity was that the object of this mission was to rescue a (very pretty) young alien woman from being trafficked onto Earth by space slavers. Rose being Rose, obviously her heart went out to the woman for all she had been through, but—as previously stated—this was not Rose’s best day. Still, she put on a smile as they escorted the woman back to Torchwood. It didn’t help that Jake took the front passenger seat of the company Hummer, the Doctor took the backseat, and the alien woman slid in next to him, leaving the driver’s seat open for Rose. Never mind that she had the keys, why the hell hadn’t Jake left the front seat for their guest? Rose grumbled internally as she looked in the rearview mirror at a red light. The alien woman was winking at the Doctor and saying something Rose couldn’t hear clearly. The drive back to HQ seemed to take hours longer than usual.

She hopped out when they arrived and marched into the building without looking back, hoping to send a message to the one person in the vehicle that should notice something off about her behavior. The Doctor had been a bit shouty and distracted and superior and rude today (all things she loved about him in the right context and directed toward a deserving opponent), but only, it seemed, toward her on this mission. To the model-thin, perky, designer-handbag, flirty victim, he was only too happy to smile and hug and make sure she was all right. And in Rose’s rational mind, she knew nothing was wrong with that and she should be right by his side in the debriefing room, comforting the alien woman and inviting her to dinner while they worked out how to get her home. But Rose’s rational mind was not in control at the moment as she gave a tight-lipped smile to her father in response to his congratulations on a mission accomplished. All she wanted was chips, Netflix, a blanket, and her Doctor to snuggle.

Instead her Doctor was being kissed on the cheek by another woman. Of course, the woman kissed everyone on the team on the cheek, even Pete Tyler. Except Rose, who offered to pull the Hummer around from where they had parked it out front to its proper spot in the car park.

When she arrived back in the building’s lobby, the receptionist said the Doctor had gone downstairs to contact the victim’s home planet through the interplanetary communications system and taken the pretty alien with him. Rose could practically hear him bragging about ( _explaining with excitement_ , her rational mind countered) how he’d been so brilliant in hooking it up and how simple it was to operate (though Rose herself had yet to figure it out, even with his help) and the pretty alien lady would probably understand it all immediately. She was probably a genius like him. Not a drop-out chav he found on a London estate.

Jake found her just then and began shouting. It’d been a long day for him too, Rose knew. His boyfriend was in the hospital and the bags under Jake’s eyes told her he hadn’t been sleeping since. But still, the dressing down echoed off the building’s sterile white-and-glass walls, even making the receptionist raise her eyebrows.

“Are you done?” Rose finally asked when he stopped. He sighed with a shake of his head.

“As your team leader, I just can’t have it happen again, Rose. That’s not the first time and you know it, though it’s usually the Doctor and you together that has been the problem. Going offline during pursuits, turning up missing for hours at a time, causing more trouble because you don’t follow procedure. Listen, I know you two have your own way of doing things, and that’s great when that works out, but try not to muck things up and cause more work for the rest of us, got it?”  

Rose crossed her arms, hoping it looked more serious than insecure, and took off for the lifts. By the time the lift _ding_ ed open at her floor, the tears were filling her eyes. She stormed into her office and threw the door shut. The latch didn’t catch and it bounced back open with the momentum. She didn’t care. She just slid down the wall and hid from the world.

* * *

 

The Doctor was very, very ready to make contact with Helena 86 and for their ship to come quickly. The alien woman, Zixa, was grating on his last nerve and it was exhausting keeping up his telepathic shields. He never visited their planet in the old universe because they were very much the opposite of Time Lords in their attachments. The 86-ites, as they were called, relished as much telepathic and physical contact as possible with everyone they met. They rarely kept anything to themselves, and Zixa was no exception. She touched and prodded and flirted. He had sympathy for what she had just been through, but he just wanted some personal space, for crying out loud! He had recently begun to consider telepathically opening up to Rose in the way Zixa wanted, but Zixa was no Rose. Not by a long shot.

The static on the interplanetary comm line cleared, and the Doctor looked up to find an extremely charming 86-ite man on the screen, smiling and nodding and following instructions to the letter. A ship would be there the next morning, at the very latest. The Doctor sent the coordinates for Torchwood’s rooftop helipad right as Pete came in to check on how things were going.

Pete had his assistant arrange for Zixa to stay at a posh nearby hotel so she’d be rested and ready for the morning pick-up. With that out of the way, and Zixa on her way to her accommodations, the Doctor sighed and raked a hand down his face. He loved people, and time itself would testify to how unstable being alone made him, but even his abundant extroversion needed a break from the day he’d had. All he wanted now was to shut the rest of the world out as he and his Rose cuddled on the couch and watched a movie. He craved her warm, safe, home-like presence after a day with an 86-ite. Where was Rose, anyway?  

* * *

 

It didn’t take long to find her. He missed them at first, but when no one else in the building knew where she went, he checked her office again. That’s when he saw them. The white, rubber tips of her pink shoes sticking out from the other side of the filing cabinet. He knocked on the partially open door, but wasn’t surprised when she only mumbled “go away” in response.

“Rose, it’s me.”

“What, done with the super model already?” she deadpanned. “Ya get her number? Gonna call her up on that space Skype thing I can’t get to work? Don’t have to worry about me seeing your call history if I can’t bloody figure out how to turn it on.”

The Doctor sighed, but she continued.

“Not that it matters, I mean. I don’t have a right to know. It’s not like I’m your… anything.” The pink Converses fidgeted as she realized what she had implied with her possessiveness. “Call whoever you want, I don’t care.”

“Rose.”

“Yeah,” she sniffed and he realized she must be crying.

“Can I come in, please? I think we need to talk.”

She didn’t respond for a moment, but then she stood and walked to the door. He was afraid she was going to push him out and lock it, but instead, she pulled him inside and shut the door behind him. She sank down into the small sofa on the front wall of her office. He wondered if she knew this would have been a much more comfortable hiding spot than behind the cabinet on the floor. Even though it was more out in the open from the perspective of inside the room, it was on the same wall as her door and thus, she wouldn’t have been seen from the doorway.

“What?” she asked, somewhat rudely. He supposed that was deserved though for how he had yet to ask what’s wrong. He wisely decided to keep his musings on her hiding places to himself.

 “Well, first off, you’re crying,” he pointed out as he sat next to her. “Can’t have that. Wanna tell me about it? And perhaps in the meantime explain what you were going on about behind that cabinet?”

“It’s stupid.” She shook her head, but she knew by now in her life with him that she wouldn’t be getting off that easily. “It’s… just me being my stupid self. Can’t do anything right. I’m so useless. To our team, to you, to everyone.” She blinked hard at the ceiling, trying to stop her tears and put on a strong façade.

“Now, you know very well that’s not true.”

“It is though!” she protested weakly. “I’m nothing. Look at me. I dropped out of school, I have a horrible history with relationships, I hated working in that shop, I caused more trouble for you than I was worth, I tried to go to uni here and quit, I’m an idiot with maths, I can’t help you grow the TARDIS coral, I still don’t understand half the things you talk about, and just today, I couldn’t keep up with the running. Jake yelled at me because I just make things worse and cause more work for everyone else. I’m not even good at my job anymore, Doctor. If I can’t do this, it’s no wonder you’re looking around.”

The Doctor blinked at her, dumbfounded at her confession. Had she really felt this way all this time? How had he not known? Usually she was so confident. He envied that about her, to be honest.

“Hang on,” he pondered. She exhaled heavily, trying to gather herself for whatever was coming next. Her eyes met his for only a second, but he could read their vulnerability. “Didn’t you quit your uni program because you’d learned what you needed to for the cannon and were shooting yourself across dimensions to save the multiverse? And you mentioned the coral… wasn’t it you last week who figured out we needed filtered water instead of tap water? And you moved her to the sunlight and she grew twice as big in a day! Never would have thought of that myself, but that’s classic Rose Tyler right there. Always adding light to everywhere she goes.”

He caught the little lift of the corner of her lip, but knew better by now than to call her out on it just yet.

“Sure, you’re average at maths!” he dismissed. “So what? You’re clever, and quick, and you always ask the right questions to figure out what you need to know. And you know I make up half the things I ramble on about. I just like impressing you with my big brain.” He winked in flirtation.

“I knew it,” she teased, still sniffling from her earlier crying though by now her tears had dried. He had a way of making everything brighter, even when it was partially him who had made her sad in the first place.  

He smiled down at her. She blushed and ducked her head, but he tilted it back up gently.

“And there’s one more thing I want you to be absolutely certain of. You are worth more to me than anything in the multiverse.” His eyes shone with passion, leaving no doubt as to his sincerity.

She broke eye contact and bit her bottom lip. “What about the flirty alien girl?”

He barked out a laugh. “She’s from Helena 86! They… it’s just their culture and species. I had to fight to keep her out of my mind, actually. She kept poking my barriers with a telepathic stick. I couldn’t wait to be rid of her, honestly. That’s why I was working so hard to help get her home when everyone else left.”

“The rest of the team went home? And Jake was too busy having a go at me, and we haven’t replaced Mickey yet… And that’s why you were alone with her while I was up here. And the whole time she was making you uncomfortable…” The pieces fell into place. Rose blushed again, this time in guilt. “I should have been down there helping you. All day, I should have been helping you instead of feeling sorry for myself.”

“’S alright. She’ll be gone in the morning.” He shrugged. “I do have one very serious question though, and I want an honest answer.”

“Yeah?”

“Why couldn’t you keep up? And what distracted you when Jake cast the plasma net instead of you? Despite whatever Jake may have said today, it’s not like you. You’re always seeing things before I do, before any of us. Putting the pieces together first. And I know you’re a faster runner than anyone but me.”

“I…” Rose swallowed. “I missed them sneaking past me because I was trying to pull my water bottle and my first aid kit from my pack so I could take a pain killer. I know it was a mistake and I should have been more careful, but we’d been waiting so long and… I’m sorry.”

“A pain killer?” The Doctor’s brow furrowed as he whipped his sonic out and scanned her for injuries. “What happened? I didn’t even notice…”

“No,” she huffed out a humorless laugh. “No, you plum. I’m, well, I’m on my monthly. It’s not usually this bad, but the shot you gave me on the TARDIS to make them virtually non-existent wore off. And since then, it’s been hard to adjust back to having to go through all of this again with the cramps and getting dehydrated and the mood swings and being so bloody exhausted all the time… I should have given you some sort of warning or whatever. You even have to live with me.” Rose shook her head.  

“I _get_ to live with you,” the Doctor corrected. “Every day we have together is a gift. And if one of those needs to be a day off, that’s ok.”

“Even if it means just watchin’ movies at home insteada chasin’ aliens?” Rose asked, letting her accent slip out in her timidity.  

“I can’t tell you how good that sounds right now. Molto bene,” he admitted and dared to sneak a hand around her shoulder and squeeze her to his side.

“Really?” The look in her red, tired eyes told him the small question meant so much more. _Really, would you be alright with domestic if it was with me? Really, would you slow down when you have the chance to run so I’m not left behind? Really, do you enjoy the quiet moments in our life as much as I do? Really, will you be there at home, day after day, when I need you?_

“Yes,” he said simply and placed a kiss on her hair. “You are the love of my lives, Rose Tyler. I’ve had 900 years of running, and if you need a day off, and frankly so do I, then let’s take it. Just tell me next time. It’s alright. You are more important than any mission.”

“Doctor,” she almost whispered, sounding unsure if she was even brave enough to ask. “Why me? I mean, you could have had any woman in all of time and space. A princess or a goddess or a genius or another companion… Even this you could have gone anywhere and done anything, but you stayed here with me. Why love me out of all of those people?”

“Why do I love you?” He couldn’t keep the incredulity out of his voice.

“Yeah, you say you love me, but I don’t understand it. I’m…”

“You’re you!” he interjected just as she said, “nothing special.”

Suddenly, he wasn’t tired anymore. He hopped up off the sofa and gestured wildly as he talked.

“Nothing special?! You’re Rose Tyler! You’re… phenomenal! You saved my life so many times, became the Bad Wolf, saved the universe and _every_ universe. All of space and time is better for having you in it. You built a time machine out of a dying TARDIS and crossed realities and are so much braver and stronger than anyone I’ve ever known. You’ve done what no one else could do! You wonder why _I_ love you? Me? I’m an old traveler with more blood on my hands than I can remember and hardly a sonic screwdriver to my name, but you’re so gorgeous and clever and witty and compassionate… oh, your heart is so beautiful. I love your mind, but your heart, Rose. It’s beyond comprehension how you are so human, even to monsters. Including me. You’re my best friend. How could I not love you? I’m the one who is marrying up, out of my league, here, not you.”

Rose was crying now for an entirely different reason, and also laughing because of how he had tugged his hair up into the most wild fashion, so it took her a second to catch what he had said.

“Wait, what did you just say?”

He played back his last sentence in his mind and she could spot the exact moment when he realized.

“I meant, well, you know…” he backpeddled and tugged on his ear, defaulting to his other tic now that his hair was sticking up in all directions. “After all, we’re spending our lives together, not that we have to, make it official or anything, I just thought we could…”

“Yes,” she said without hesitation.

“We’ve only been back together for a month, so I understand if you don’t want to. It is rather soon. Or we don’t have to ever. I know that it’s probably old fashioned and I should just forget about it—”

“Doctor!” she cut him off, then lowered her voice as she stood in front of him. “I said yes. If you’re asking.”

He swallowed.

“I… will. I intend to ask you properly. But I, um,” he stuttered sheepishly. “I have much more romantic plan, if that’s alright.”

“Yeah, yeah, of course.” She beamed at him through her now-happy tears. He took her hand and entwined their fingers before pecking a kiss to her lips.

“Oh, and Rose?” He pulled back before she could deepen it into a full snog. “I was an arse today. I should have checked on you far earlier, and I said some things that I now realize _weren’t_ the kindest or most tactful… Forgive me?”

“What, you rude? Who would have thought,” she teased. “Yeah, if you’ll forgive me for all, well, all of this.” She gestured to her puffy eyes and stained blouse and messy ponytail and the sofa where she had been questioning her very existence.

“Beautiful.”

“No, I mean…” She took a deep breath and expelled it, trying to find the right words. “I should have told you I was in pain and shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions about the pretty alien lady.”

“Believe me, I understand. As long as we’re being honest, can I tell you something?” He leaned in and she mirrored him.

“What’s that?” Her eyes twinkled at his conspiratorial tone.  

“Our first week in the office, I watched every man like a hawk to see which ones had crushes on you. Some of the women too. You’re very popular.”

She giggled a bit. “Yeah? What’d you do, send ’em that old ‘hands off the blonde’ look like the Northern you used to do when Jack was around?”

“You saw that?” He grinned down at her.

“Yeah, didn’t want me with anyone else but wouldn’t let yourself have me either. Story of our lives, huh?”

“Mmmm. Not anymore,” he practically purred. “One human life and none of it to waste on rubbish Time Lord curses. I’m all yours.”

She giggled again as he waggled his eyebrows. She kissed him, but backed away too soon for his liking.

“My what?”

“Hm?”

“Well, you said you’re all mine. My what? We love each other and live together, and you aren’t flirting with other women even when they are trying very hard to get you to flirt with them, and you’ve let the cat out of the bag that you plan to marry me, but not until some romantic proposal, so…”

“So…?”

“So what are we?”

“We’re us!” He was clearly trying to follow her train of thought but was giving her that look when they had run into a cross-species miscommunication.

“I mean, like, if I’m introducing you to someone, you’re my what? We’re not married—”

“Yet!” he interrupted happily.

“We’re not engaged because you haven’t proposed—”

“Yet,” he interrupted again, this time more for assurance and clarification.

“So, what are we? How do I introduce you to people?”

“Hm. Let’s see… 21st century British English…” he squinted and wrinkled his nose as he thought. “Boyfriend and girlfriend, I suppose. Hm. Yes, that will do. ‘Hello, nice to meet you all. This is my girlfriend, Rose Tyler.’” He tested it out on his tongue, rolling her name around in his mouth like he always did.

 “So when my dad’s filthy-rich sister comes next month for Tony’s birthday and says, ‘Is that your boyfriend? Finally! It’s about time. You aren’t getting any younger, Rosie,’ I’ll say…”

“You’ll say ‘You know, Aunt Marge, your posh accent is atrocious and you should keep your opinions about other people’s ages and love lives to yourself.’”

Rose laughed at his impression of her. “She really does talk like that! You’ll see.”

“More to the point,” he continued. “Yes. In fact, I’ll introduce myself to her first. ‘Aunt Marge, is it? I’m the Doctor, Rose’s boyfriend and a 906-year-old part-alien. No, the age difference doesn’t bother us and yes, we are most certainly a couple in the fullest sense of the word.’”

“Fullest sense of the word, huh?” She licked her lips, wondering what he thought that entailed.

“Oh yes.” He pulled her to him with a hand on her lower back. “In the four weeks until Aunt Marge arrives, we are going to be very busy, you and I.”

“Yeah?” Finally, his eyes slipped down to her cleavage as she pressed her chest to his.

“Just you wait, Rose. We’re going farther than we’ve ever gone before.”

“I like the sound of that!”

He entwined their hands again and moved to open the door.

“But for now, let’s just go home.”

She smiled and bounded out the door with him to the lift. When the doors shut, she snogged him thoroughly. They hardly realized when the lift reached the ground floor, but broke apart when someone cleared his throat.

“I’m assigning you two some time off,” Pete announced as they disembarked from the lift. “You’ve both been brilliant since the Doctor arrived here and it’s far past time that I should have sent you on sabbatical. Three weeks to go explore the world or rest or do whatever it is you two do to find trouble.”

“Dad, we can’t! What about Jake and the team?” Rose protested, trying not to seem too excited.

“They will be fine,” he assured. “You two have hardly had time together. Go show the Doctor around this universe. Take the zeppelin and your passports. But I want you two back here and ready to work in three weeks. Got it?”

“Yes, sir!” The Doctor accepted before Rose could turn it down. She hugged her father, and they said their goodbyes.

“And not a scratch on that zeppelin,” he called out after them. “And call your mother!”

“Got it!” Rose shouted back over her shoulder. By now, the pain killers had long since set in, plus she knew their Tube station wasn’t far away, so as soon as they were out the doors of Torchwood One, she grabbed his hand. Her happiness shone despite her disheveled appearance. He knew what she was going to say before she even said it and was ready when she did.

“Run!”    

“Allons-y!” he called as they disturbed the peace of the city of London. But they didn’t care.

Sometimes even the Stuff of Legend need a holiday.


End file.
